This is very interesting…. 2 days ago I had to have papers signed by my doctor to verify that I am healthy for my insurance company -so I decided not to say anything about my health to this doctor. I have written off doctors for help with fibro anyway as he took blood test 6 months ago and said I was ok, nothing wrong. Well- I gained 40 lbs in 4 years (and it is not because I am fatiqued or lazy or in pain as most doctors will tell you until we also are convinced it is our fault-so we start to blame ourselves like I have seen written here by many people) Anyway Thank god for the weight gain otherwise my doctor didn't believe anything was wrong with me. He saw me and was amazed/shocked at my weight gain ( I am only 5’2” so it is noticeable.) to be continued...

I have been told for many, many years that my thyroid is fine by my many medical doctors but I have been very sick with fibro. Every symptom that has been listed in this forum, I have. AND all of these symptoms falls under the umbrella of hypothyroidism. Yes-- Fibro falls under hypothyroidism. The 3 natural doc’s that I work with told me that my thyroid is creating all of my problems however unfortunately testing for this condition falls very short in the medical community. You can have hypothyroidism for many, many years before medical blood tests pick up on it. I have been told for many, many years that my thyroid is fine but I have been sick with fibro. Well- today, my blood test came back and guess what- I have an underactive thyroid!!! I knew it for years but it took many years for it to finally show up in the outdated medical tests. I told my GP 2 days ago that I have been telling every doctor including him that something was wrong and no-one believed me- I just got many prescriptions for anti-depressants, anti anxiety, etc.. It was just 6 months ago that he and my endocrinologist took blood and again both said everything is just fine, no thyroid problems. Now today- the results are in and finally validates what I knew in my heart for 6 years, hypothyroidism. My wish is for all to read "Living well with Hypothyroidism" by Mary Shomon. The thyroid regulates all of the systems responsible for the symptoms that y’all mention in this forum.

Hi Helen, thanks for the info... although we have seen it so many times at this point. You change your name.... but the story is always the same. Let me guess, should we go to the spineboy.com website or helpmythyroid.com too. Use ONE name, you must have a lot of time on your hands.

I was diagnosed last year with FMS and my blood tests for hypothyroidism came back negative although I have all of the symptoms. My regular doctor had no idea how to treat my FMS and kept "trying" different meds instead of listening to me and running other tests. I am now going to a homeopathic doctor who told me the blood tests won't pick up all of the problems. My tests for low adrenal hormone function and other neurotransmitters are causing my thyroid to not work properly. I am now on one of the thyroid meds and my FMS symptoms are subsiding.

Deb- I have seen your posts many, many times and have found them to be very negative and toxic and always of a very critical nature. Shame on you. It appears that you are a very confused person with a lot of destructive characteristic that you want to share with everyone. It appears that you want to bring everyone down with your damaging posts. Somewhere along in your life you may have rec'd a mixed message that people want to be the recipient of your on-line identity crisis, your negative judgments and your need to be right. I can't help but wonder if you put the same amount of energy into working on yourself to rid yourself of your toxic actions if you would feel better. To answer your question above -yes, maybe you should go visit those sites listed that is if you are willing to refocus your negative energy into a less destructive activity. People like you that are so willing to slam everyone that comes into this forum looking for help; people like you that are so determined to crush the hopes of people that are willing to share their positive discoveries about their health advances, people like you that want everyone else to be miserable are the people that give Fibro a bad reputation. You seem so sad, miserable, angry and confused. I am concerned for the new people that visit this forum looking for help to be exposed to your negative posts. You give fibro a bad name.
It is totally up to you to get yourself out of your miserable situation, but please not at our expense.

On a more positive note- for the people that are wanting to learn more about advances in FMS there is a lot of evidence on the HPT axis and how this axis creates all the fibro problems when there is an interrupt in this communication. The hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis (HPT axis for short) is an important part of the endocrine system. As its name suggests, it depends upon the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the thyroid gland. This disconnects comes from stress, diet, and may have a genetic component, etc. Best wishes everyone.

I don't even have a thyroid! Mine was removed over 15 yrs ago due to Graves disease (a HYPER thyroid disease) I've been on synthyriod for yrs & have never been HYPO thyroid. I've just resently been diagnosised with FM

Teresa- OMG !!! Then you must read "Living well with Hypothyroidism" by Mary Shomon. It goes into GREAT detail about people having their thyroids removed as well as never ever being able to get the diagnosis of hypothyroism because of the outdated testing. Almost everyone that has a full or partial removal ends up with hypothyroidism and at some level some FMS symtoms. I hope you read it. Good luck!

Hi Helen, some people DO appreciate the time it takes to write out a thoughful and time consuming post... I have posted success I have had with certain books and was also ripped apart for it, so I understand what you are saying. Onwards... I have had my bloodwork done, nothing shows up wrong at all. There is a lot of information out here and it is a bit confusing. Can you tell us where to start if your bloodwork & thyroid are testing as normal? Where do we go from here? You seem very open-minded, have you read any books about mindbody dyndromes like "Freedom From Fibromyalgia" by Nancy Selfridge? Could treating the thyroid be simply treating the symptom, whilst the cause goes undealt with (toxic emotions causing physical symptoms). Just wondering what you think of that idea or if you had read any books like that. The mind & body are meshed, not separate. Take care.

All of my blood work came back normal as well. Once I went to a holistic doctor, they ran tests for adrenal hormones (cortisol and DHEA), neurotransmitters (serotonin, GABA, etc.), and a test for an over-growth of yeast. They also had me fill out a lengthy questionnaire which showed low hormone function although my blood work was normal. My regular doctor laughed when I suggested this additional testing because he didn't believe in FMS. My holistic doctor told me alot of patients with adrenal and neurotransmitter problems will have normal thyroid function by the blood work but the body doesn't process the thyroid hormone properly. All of my levels were extremely low after testing and was confirmed with a yeast over-growth. It was very frustrating to have my regualr doctor throwing meds at me that didn't work b/c he had no idea what was wrong with me.

For those of you that have a problem with long posts don’t read this. For Jolie and Kim- I know it is crazy for me to celebrate that I finally got a diagnosis of hypothyroidism but it does feel good to be validated, finally. Unfortunately the medical tests do not pick up on these things until you are way too sick, finally gainned weight, developed anxiety, pain, forgetfulness, etc. My suggestion is to find a good holistic doctor to start with. I had an iridologist tell me 6 years ago what was wrong with the many systems in my body, lymphatic, endocrine, circulatory etc. (the lympathic system is what Anne talks about at fibrofix.com with the excess mucus). Unfortunately I dismissed my iridologist since I really didn't have any physical symptoms at that time and afterall I was raised to believe that doctors are the final answer. I went to her because I had major vertigo problems due to a surgery that I had- removal of 1/2 of my thyroid. I was never sick, I was just told that my neck was enlarged and get the goiter out. So i did because I believed my doctors. Then I developed the polycystic syndrome, vertigo probelms, 40 lbs, insulin resistance etc., to be continued...

sorry about length - part 2 Thru out the weight gain (thank god for physical symptoms) I started to explore with many visits to different holistic doctors and they were all right on with the same advice about how all of my glands are not communicating, pituitary, hypothalamus, thyroid, adrenals, etc. Now I have all of the FMS symptoms that we see on this forum. I was recently lead to info on the HPT disconnect and how important the thyroid is in managing all of these systems. Treating the thyroid is treating a part of the body ( not a symptom) that communicates with the adrenals that are stressed due to our hectic lives, car accidents, physical and emotional abuse, etc. When you are emotionally stressed your body does pay for it. It may take years to show up as symptoms. Additionally we are so deficient in nutrients from our American diets that further creates problems for our glands, ie., lack of iodine creates thyroid problems, cystic breasts and ovaries, etc. then it all snowballs until we get FMS symptoms which really comes from endocrine problems.

part 3, the last - don't read if you hate long posts, read only if you are open to learning/sharing... There are many books that talk about this such as “Living healthy w/ hypothyroidism” and Dr. Flechas website Helpmythyroid.com. I just wish they would remove “thyroid” from the titles since no one is aware that they have thyroid problems because medical test are so outdated. I also denied a thyroid connection for 6 years until I gained 40 lbs and I had ½ my thyroid removed!!! Denial is such a strong barrier to getting better. By the way, I feel that Anne at fibrofix is right on about checking the ph of our bodies, we are acidic due to our diets. I would just approach fixing the problems more naturally. I am also checking into natural thyroid hormone as opposed to synthroid since that works against you after so many years. I also signed up today with the personal program on the site womentowomen.com. It was a link on this forum’s website, they seemed tuned in to the adrenal, thyroid, ph, fibro problems. Good luck!! PS. I am still reading and learning as well and working on my health.